3stepbend wrote:Thanks for the detailed reply. I'll admit, some of it makes sense and some of it doesn't (to me that is). I need to study it a bit. Hard to do without my guitar, and while at work 8^)If you have any other questions, let me know.
TJ's advice is good - you don't really need to worry about the sharps and flats - I only talked about those because the discussion turned towards key signatures and I find them helpful. The discussion of Dorian vs. Minor helps explain why the tune was written the way it was. I don't know if Jerry knew the technical names of everything but he definitely understood the concepts of modal harmony. I'm a theory geek though, and love it when I get to dip into the complex stuff. The more the better!
For practical purposes, for this tune I would (and do) just jam on A Dorian, follow the changes, and try to stay out of Mike's (aka Jerry's) way.
I do use the concept of secondary dominants a lot while playing, though. A good example of this is during last week's Harvard Radio show that we played, we jammed Estimated in F#m into Terrapin in F Major. When Mike aka Jerry comes in strumming that nice F chord you don't want it to sound jarring, you want it to sound gentle, like you're sitting down in front of a warm, cozy fire where Grandpa Jerry is going to tell you a story. So to set that F major up, I gradually started hinting at C7 more and more during the Estimated jam.
Here's what I mean:
http://www.archive.org/details/Fennario ... _Broadcast
